Randolph Peter Best or Pete Best was The Beatles's original drummer. He was born on 24 November 1941 in Madras, India to an Indian mother and an English father. His mother, Mona, later owned the Casbah Club in Liverpool, where The Beatles would sometimes perform. Best was drummer for the group from 1960 until August 16, 1962, when the band and their new manager, Brian Epstein, fired him and replaced him with Ringo Starr. The reason was because when the band auditioned for EMI, record producerGeorge Martin was not satisfied with Best's drum skills, and planned to replace him on their recordings.

Best was devastated, and tried to form other bands with little success. He attempted suicide in 1965, but survived, and went on to work as a civil servant. In 1995, when The Beatles released their Anthology albums, which featured Best on some recordings, he received a large sum of money from the sales. He also found a new career, appearing at Beatles-related events such as conventions, where he sometimes played drums, with more skill than he showed in earlier days.